2026/27 Portland Arts & Lectures: Isabel Wilkerson

Isabel Wilkerson is the author of The New York Times bestsellers The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. She was the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for journalism and was awarded the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama. Her work blends history, sociology and reportage to explore race in America, how unspoken histories and hierarchies inform our present moment.